"SOLD TO THE JEWS"

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 100, 28 April 1921, Page 9

"SOLD TO THE JEWS"

ARABS IN PALESTINE

ZIONIST MOVEMENT CRITICISED

WRONG TYPE OF IMMIGRANT.

JEWS WHO WON'T WORK THE LAND. - j Some highly-instructive notes on the development of the Zionist movement in Palestine have been forwarded -to" Major-General Sir E. W. C. Ohaytor (General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Defence Forces, who commanded the famous Anzac Mounted' Division in the PaJestine campaignl) by a former Anzac, who is now resident in Jerusalem. In a covering fetter to General Qhayior, dated Jerusalem, 11th March,'the writer states that "the High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, came with a bitter feeling against him in the miuds of the Arabs, because he was a Jew, but he is doing splendidly, because be is more FJnglish than Jew. 11 The notes are ac follow :— MEN WHO FOUGHT WERE ' TURNED IX)WN. "When, the Australian, and New Zea/land light Horsemen at last fought their way off the dreary desert, in Alfeoby's great campaign-, and found themselves on the soil of Palestine, there were three great sources of interest that filled our talk. The fiißt, of course, was Johnny Turk, and what a good rear-guard scrap he was putting up, but how fast wewero keeping Mm on the run. The second was the historical interests of that land of associations; or, as I beard it, more picturesquely put, 'we like to hear about the blokes that used to knock around here in the old days.' Who will forgot how men used to flock to hear a racy lecture by old. Padre Msitland'-Woods ? And the third interest, as absorbing as any, was the discussion as to the land, and what could be made of it. Bleak and bare enough it looks, especially those grey, boulder-spotted hills of Judaea; as if it could produce nothing but limestone rocks and Jericho Jostleis. But the man who come 3 from the land is not to be deceived by a dreariness that is largely the result of neglect and bad government; ho could see that to judge Palestine by its present appearance is about as sensible as to take a horse that has been starved to a bag of bones, aaidi say : 'I don't think much of that for a horse.' "And tho general verdict upon Palestine was : 'Tliis is good country. . Give this land decent government and good work for ten years, and you would not know it again.' Those who had studied the science of cultivation were sure that even the rockiest of the uplands and the wildest wadka wandering amongst the hills would well repay systematic treatment; for decomposed limestone makes rich soil. When the Anzac Division returned from that dreadful first SalbAmman stunt, though they had passed: through as stiff a time as any that was faced by British soldiers in the war, yet their talk was full of the wonderful country on those rich uplands of Moab and Bnahan'; 'it could grow enough [wheat to feed the British Islands.' And it is a matter of common knowledge that many of the men applied to take up land after tho war—and were turned' down. PROBLEM OF SETTLEMENT. "Well, no doubt they are well 1 off now in good old Australia and New Zealand, and their coun trrfts want ' them; but Palestine sorely needs them' too. It was said by one of tho Administrators of Palestine : 'I wish we could have a lot of Anzaos over here as settlers; they work, and they know how to work land like this; and what a sobering element they would be. (Ho was greatly tried at the time by the recrudescence of unrest and brigandage; and such things Simply do not happen when Anzaos are about; the Bedouin keeps quiet). 'I suppose wo cannot get them-now,' said the Administrator. I suppose\we cannot; though _ we have some— Calomel Fulton , <J ulk> a Httlo Australian settlement at Bit-Satan, and Major Love is at Haifa, and Captain Masson is in the Agricultural Department. But that is just the way the wise old Roman Empire arranged for tho settlement of ite WV^tw^Monraged the men who had done the fighting to settle down as ita farmers, to be a steadying an)d progressive element in the portion. YHit may interest the men of New ■Zealand and Australia to hear what is being done for the development of the land here. And their thoughts wiU first of all go to the, question : Who are to be the people to work the land? For Pales- ■ trne will never be a rich land, though it ought to bo a prosperous land. It will only succeed when it i 6 inhabited by a race of steady--\vorking peasants and yeomen: men who work the land themselves; it cannot keep two sets— the men who work, and the owners who simply finance and draw the profits It needa financing and capital; but resi-dent-ownere; it must be 'owners up' on the farms and estates of Palestine. . "THESE JEWS DO NOT WORK." "A great controversy rages ac to the numbers that Palestine will support. The 7ionist propagandist asserts that/it at present lias only half a million and will hold its millions; the Arab propagandist replies that it i» full already, and every Jew immigrant will be a burden and an intruder. Both are probably wrong; it is absurd to _say that in its present negilected state it is carrying its full quoU of population; but the limits of what it could carry would long bo reached before it accommodated even a fair proportion of the eleven or twelve million Jews who are now scattered round the world—even if those Jews are able and willing to become the kind of landsmen who alona can improve the country. "All the present immigration into Palestine is Jewish; and-it must be said thaf it is at present of a most disappointing type. Reference to any Zionist propaganda will show that there is no idea of selection amongst immigrants, with a view to sending those who wiU be of the type that euoh a country needs. They are frankly using Palestine as a place of refuge for oppressed Jews ; it is Palestine for the use of the Jews, not Jews for the use of Palestine. They oertainly are not used to life 'on the land'; nor can it be said that they take to it kindly, or show much likelihood of becoming a race of cultivators. Also the immigration has been allowed to commence before arrangements had been thought out for settling people on the land, even if they were fitted; with the result that'the Government has had. to provide relief works on a considerable scale for the immigrants. "The Jews, however, point triumphantly, as their great argument for the benefit that will accrue to the country from Jewish sei tlement, to such colonies ac Richon-le-Zion and Rehoboth. It is perfectly true that in those places land that would simply have been roved over by a few Bedouins has been turned into prosperous and fertile fruit orchards aond vineyards. But lam afraid that those of the Amzac Division who had tho opportunity for some months of watching pretty closely those settlements will agree on tho verddct, 'Tliose Jnwa do not work. They pay Arabs to do the work.

They had abundant Rothschild money behind them in the foundation of these colonies. 'But if the.country is to have a population numbered in millions who are only going to stroll about while they pay others to do the work, it ia not the way to make Palestine prosperous/ There is not enough money even in the Jewish exchequers to cover Palestine with Richons. It wants people who 'will go to work like a pioneer goes to work in an up-country district of Australia or New Zealand. They must work. NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY. "There is little good to he said for the Bedouin, viewed »3 an asset to a country nee is development. They live in \heie black' tents; they have roving rights over fairly large tracts; they scratch a spring , crop here, move on to grazing there, \ and represent the very opposite of. closer settlement. It was somewhat dkquietening recently to see Sir Herbert Samuel, at a most picturesque meeting which he had with a gathering of Bedouin sheikhs at Beersheba, tell them that the Government had no intention of interfering with the ancient customs of the Bedouin people. If that is so, a good deal of Palestine must remain undeveloped. "The fellahin or village-dwelling peasantry of the 'country have not had much chance yet to show what is in them in the way of possibilities of development; what was the good, under the Turk, of getting anything but a bare living from the land, when any appearance of prosperity only meant the certainty that the tax-collector would regard you as a subject for special attention? But those who know them- best think highly of them; they say that they work; and first, last, and all the time we come back to that test when thinking of the future of Palestine. "THE ARAB MUST GO; THIS COUNTRY IS OUBS." " 'Give the country a chance; give it good government, and you won't know' it.' . So said the Anza-cs; and they may be interested to know what the Government is 'doing. Make ye sure to each his own, That he reap where he hath sown. The first thing a Government must do is to diffuse a feeling of public security, to make it worth a man's while to look far ahead. Particularly so is this in Palestine, on the hills; for the labour of clearing his patch of soil from stones, of laboriously terracing the hillside, of constantly keeping up his terrace, walls, is incessant and fatiguing; and the olive-tree, which is the great wealth of the country, is a slow-growing tree, taking about twenty years to come to full bearing, arid then going on for generations. But I will not treat here of the general feeling of the country; only to say that it is extremely sad for any man of British blood, who knows the welcome that was given to the idea of British rule and protection, the confidence that was felt that it would mean security and protection, now to find the total change from all that. It is chiefly due to the loud shouting of the Zionist element referred to before; men like Zangwill openly say, 'The Arab must go ; this country is ours'; and very reluctantly the Arab has come to the conclusion that we have 'sold him to tho Jews,' and that he is not sure to 'reap where he has sown.' This is politics; but its'connection with the development of the land, which needs above all a happy, confident class of cultivators, is obvious. Nothing ie more urgent for Palestine than a clear definition of what we mean by the famous phrase in the mandate, that in Palestine we are to establish 'a national home for the Jews.' What of the Arabs, who claim 90 per cent of the population? "But our Government has shown, considerable zeal in helping the cultivators to develop the land. The land needs money—we have provided it; it needs live stock—we are importing them ;, it could grow all sorts of crops unknown as yet—we are experimenting with a few. Few Anzaos will be ready to hoar a good word of the Jordan Valley, after their experience there; 'anyone can have it for mo,' was the common verdict. Yet everyone who thinks of the abundant supply of springs, the unworked soil, the possibilities of irrigation from, the Jordan, and the past record of the wonderful fertility of Jericho, must realise that it can become a wonderful source jof wealth under tropical ..crops. (And yet some lunatics want to cut a canal from Haifa and let the Mediterranean Sea into it!). Under the present political arrangement of frontiers, tho east of Jordan will probably not come under British rule; and the French have retained control of the waters of the Litany and the Yarmuk, so essential to the full development of Palestine. Still, much may be done; and a few details of the activities of the Agricultural Department may bo of interest. "DISCONTENT OF THE PEOPLE." "It is now seven months since civil government took the place of military administration. During that time, a sum of about £150,000 has b«en disbursed for the purpose of agricultural loans. During military administration, .a sum of about £170,000 had been used in \the same way; so that since the British occupation, £320,000 has been granted in loans to the cultivators. Animals valued at £12,600 have been purchased on behalf of the cultivators, who pay for them on a system of instalments spread over three years. A large selection of seeds/ representing new varieties of crops, has been issued for trial in co-operative plots. Successful ploughing and tractor trials have been held at several centres. A Land Commission has investigated the conditions of land tenure in different parts of the country with a view to • the framing of recommendations for the protection of tenants' rights. Animal quarantine "^stations have been opened. The export of wheat and barley was till recently prohibited; but the expa# of barley is now allowed, under license; the prices of grain have been high, and the discontent of the people is largely due to the high cost of living; it was much cheaper under the Turk, they say. Special rates have been, granted by the railway for the transport of cereals; but railway rates are extremely high, as fuel is still expensive. PREPARING FOR LOCUST PLAGUES. "Finally, hero are two rather picturesque items. Anzacs will remember the stories that were told by the people of the plague of locusts that ravaged the country in 1916 (the Turks said we drove them in from the (desert}. There is fear of another such visitation. So poison has been prepared for immediate employment in' case of an invasion of locusts;.also a battery of flame-projectors has been ordered to stand by ready for the same service. Poison has also been dealt out to districts that are plagued with field-mice. "Under the Turk, tobacco was a monopoly. This' has ; been revoked now; and there is some excitement; meetings have been held in various towns, to estabfish the growing and making of tobacco on a large scale; seed is being demanded from the Government; and experimental work is to be undertaken. So that tho next time the veteran Anzac visits the country of his old exploits, where sometimes wo chased so fast that wo ran far ahead of tobaccoanpplies, he will bo able no doubt to blow his fcool! blue cloik! with the best 'Amma.il Mixture' or-'Jericho Twist.'"